London | The Racket – first tennis book to bag William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

Conor Niland, a former Irish professional tennis player and Ireland’s current Davis Cup captain, who was born in Birmingham and grew up in Limerick, won the biggest prize of his tennis career on Tuesday – the 2024 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, and £30,000.

I’m floating. I can’t believe it. I felt like the The Racket could have a chance, but to actually win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is just amazing. Conor Niland

Niland’s book, a memoir entitled ‘The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%’ (published by Penguin Books), is the first from the sport to win the prestigious prize.

Speaking about the win, Niland said: “I’m floating. I can’t believe it. I felt like the The Racket could have a chance, but to actually win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is just amazing.”

The Racket is an underdog story, an autobiography that describes Niland’s career highs and lows on the ATP Tour, and reveals the hardships of the majority of players on the road, who struggle to balance the books as they try to break through against the game’s best.

It lifts the lid on the perils of match-fixing and doping in tennis, as well as sharing the light-hearted tales of Niland’s 7 years on the road.

When he was 16, he got the chance to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri’s famed tennis academy.

The Irish junior No 1 was feeling a bit homesick, while Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy.

Niland knows what it is like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room (‘Ciao, bonjour, hello!’), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world’s biggest tennis stadium while suffering from food poisoning, but he never reached the very top.

The Irishman, who came within a handful of points of securing a match against Federer on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2010, took on Djokovic at the 2011 US Open

The Racket is the story of pro tennis’s 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments.

It brings readers into a world where a few dozen super-rich players, travelling with coaches and physios, share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses.

Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog’s memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.

Now in its 36th year, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award rewards excellence in sports writing and was first awarded in 1989.

The prize for winning the award is £30,000 as well as a trophy, while authors that made the shortlist received £3,000 and a leather-bound copy of their book.

Niland is the first author from the Republic of Ireland to win since 1990, when Paul Kimmage took the prize with Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel with a Pro Cyclist, while The Racket is the first book on tennis to win the award.

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